Text / "The Strike: Understand it = Join it"

Click here to view text. May contain additional pages.

Get Citation

Have a question about this item?

Contact Owner

Item information.

Title: "The Strike: Understand it = Join it"
Creator: Third World Liberation Front
Date Created and/or Issued: 1969
Contributing Institution: UC Berkeley, Ethnic Studies Library
Collection: Third World Strike at University of California, Berkeley collection, 1968-1972
Rights Information: Copyright Unknown
Rights Notes: Copyright status unknown. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owner. In addition, the reproduction of some materials may be restricted by terms of gift agreements, donor restrictions, privacy and publicity rights, licensing and trademarks. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.
Type: text
Identifier: CES ARC 2015/1 Carton 1 Folder 1
CES0009
Subject: Student movements
Student strikes
Third World Liberation Front
Place: Berkeley, Calif.
Source
Location: UC Berkeley Ethnic Studies Library
Transcription: THE STRIKE: Understand It = Join it We ask you to be informed of the issues. To cross the strike lines without the information by which to make an intelligent decision...is to be irresponsible...........A Chinese Student Whether or not you are informed about the strike, it is very relevant to you regardless of your position...pro or con. It is our intention to close down the campus if our demands are not implemented. We would like to see you join us in our strike and the sooner you join us in our strike, the sooner our demands will be met non-violently. We feel that the members of the University community are capable of responding intelligently when informed and educated on the issues of the strike. Today and Monday there will be convocations where speakers will clarify the demands and answer questions. Please come to the convocations. Don't break the strike lines. A HISTORY For nine months, the Afro-American Students Union has met with administration and academic senate representatives at UCB. After many discussions and numerous alterations made on the original student proposal for an Autonomous Department, the Executive Department of the College of Letters and Science decided to approve a Black Studies Program but not a Department. On Wednesday, January 15, 1969, Dean Knight, Dean of Letters and Science, overruled the Letters and Science Executive Committee's decision and instead recommended that the AASU have a Department, But with restrictions: 1. He stipulated that a six (6) man implementing committee would be selected to set up the department. He further stated that the six man implementing committee MUST include three (3) white members and no students. 2. The Department would be denied the right to admit Freshman students. We all know that there are departments in this University which have the authority to admit Freshmen. The Chicanos number slightly over 100 although state population 12% Mexican-American. This is about .04% representation on the UCB campus. After a sit-in in President Hitch's office last fall they were granted funds to begin a Chicano Studies Center. They too are planning for an autonomous department and seek permanent status and funds for the Chicano Center. The Asian-Americans seem over represented on campus with over 2,000 of 27,000 students but less than 1% of the state population. But it can be pointed out: 1) most of the students are from upper and middle class families, while access to higher education is still limited in urban and rural agricultural areas. 2) While the Filipino population of California exceeds the combined Japanese and Chinese populations, they are barely represented. 3) That the Asian Studies that do exist are not relevant to the study of the role of the Asian in America but to international studies (i.e. Cantonese is spoken by most Chinese-Americans but Mandarin is taught). 4) Hiring of Asians remains on the lower ends of the employment scale. There is a definite lack of Orientals in executive positions. THE STRIKE Members of the Afro-American Students Union, the Asian-American Political Alliance and the Mexican-American Student Confederation have formed the Third World Liberation Front around the following basic interests and issues: 1) the autonomy of Third World Departments and funds for a future Third World College, 2) more Third World personnel at all levels, both academic and non-academic -- fuller Third World participation in the University, 3) increased enrollment, economic and academic aid for Third World Students, 4) participation of Third World people in every level of University programs that involve any Third World community. They intend to strike until demands are met to the satisfaction of Central Committee of the TWLF of UCB. THE CONCEPT OF THIRD WORLD STUDIES One of the most controversial aspects of the Third World strike demands has been the concept of the Third World Studies. To clarify the reasons behind the concept, the following quotes have been extracted from the individual proposals of the Afro-American Students Union, the Mexican American Student Confederation and the Asian-American Political Alliance: FROM "THE ASIAN AMERICAN STUDIES AT UCB" "The point is that the white man has historically denied the non-white people of our existence other than on an inferior level that is needed to be "civilized" by western standards. Not that we need their approval for we eat, think, breathe, work, talk, create, make love...regardless of the white man. But in order to survive in this world we have to had to defend ourselves from the belching stomachs and snapping teeth of western civilization or be consumed, leaving only left-over shreds of our identity" "The Oriental living within the confines of United States boundaries (whether immigrant or citizen whose birth place is on American soil) are in effect told by formal education, the mass media and most forms of social organization to hate himself. He is taught that the European way of viewing the world is the universally correct one, and that Eastern thought is "exotic," "weird," and "slothful." He has also been led to believe that his language is no more than odd sounding, meaningless gibberish, instead of being melodious and expressive. But worst of all, he is taught to hate the color of his skin and the shape of his features. In short, he is, on this level, taught to view even the basic aspect of his physical being as despicable and undesirable." FROM "THE GENESIS OF A NEW COURSE (an article on the course, Mexican American Population 143X)" "The Mexican American Population (143X), is a course that exists as a result of a direct conflict. Ignorance and irony describe its implications. For on the one hand, the youth of these people are confronted with a systematic denial which originates from widespread ignorance. In the words of the course's instructor, "Children of Mexican descent can go to school and read history, and read sociology, and read psychology, and read anthropology; and in effect, they come to realize that the Mexican population in the United States has been wiped out of history. They have been viewed as historic, non-historical, non-participants in history and much less as generators of the historical process." "Professor Romano ascribes deeper causes to the majority culture's negation. "The general population," he states, "is suffering from the John Wayne syndrome. Its victims refuse to acknowledge the fact that the Chicano is motivated by a pioneer spirit that has been responsible for substantial advancements." Furthermore, the ignorance of the mass culture is ironic "when they must demand information on the contributions of the peoples that went into making that society'." FROM "THE PROPOSAL FOR A BLACK STUDIES DEPARTMENT" The young Black people of America are the inheritors of what is undoubtedly one of the most challenging, gravest, and threatening set of social circumstances that has ever fallen upon a generation of young people anywhere in...

About the collections in Calisphere

Learn more about the collections in Calisphere. View our statement on digital primary resources.

Copyright, permissions, and use

If you're wondering about permissions and what you can do with this item, a good starting point is the "rights information" on this page. See our terms of use for more tips.

Share your story

Has Calisphere helped you advance your research, complete a project, or find something meaningful? We'd love to hear about it; please send us a message.